e-mail: keithconning@aol.com.
I have been a fan, athlete, coach, official, prep editor, author, blogger, and photographer since 1953.
I have announced the NCAA West, the Pac-12, the Stanford Invitational, the Brutus Hamilton Invitational, the Mt. SAC Relays, the North Coast Section, the Sac-Joaquin Section, and the California State High School Meet.
I have attended five Olympic Games and four World Championships.
I am a U.S. Correspondent for Track and Field News.

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Scranton, Cooks Victorious In Multi-Events Links associated with this release

The multi-events portion of the 2017 Big West Track and Field Championships concluded Saturday at Cal State Fullerton, as seniors Teddy Scranton of Cal Poly and Riley Cooks of Long Beach State were crowned champions of the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively.

Scranton won the decathlon with 7,143 points, dethroning last year’s champion, Tyler Nelson of UC Santa Barbara. Nelson finished second with 6,944 points. UC Davis sophomore Kyle Clancy came in third with 6,787 points, followed by CSUN’s Taylor Cudequest (6,733) and Cal Poly’s Jacob Rickman (6,655).

This is the fourth time a Cal Poly representative has won the Big West decathlon. Jon Takahashi captured gold in 2003, and James Nunno was a two-time winner in 2007 and 2009.

Cooks became the second two-time heptathlon champion from Long Beach State, joining Ami Ice from 1989 and 1991. She is the first Big West athlete to win in back-to-back seasons since Nevada’s Janel Chandler (1997-98).

The native of Coarsegold, Calif. earned the title with 5,671 points, bettering her winning mark of 5,414 from 2016. The 5,671 points represented the second-highest winning total in the 33-year history of the event. Cooks nearly unseated UC Santa Barbara’s Barbara Nwaba as the meet record holder, just missing Nwaba’s 5,709 total from 2012.

Scranton, who trailed Nelson by 71 points after the completion of five events, eventually overtook first place for good in the penultimate event – the javelin. Scranton’s toss of 179-10.50 was good for second place and 660 points, and allowed him to take a 105 point lead on Nelson going into the last event, the 1,500 meters.

Scranton, who finished third in the decathlon in 2015 and fourth in 2016, cemented the victory in the 1,500 as he clocked 4:53.94 for second place, trailing only Thomas Grossman of UC Davis. Nelson finished ninth in both the javelin and 1,500 to help Scranton’s late surge to the title.

The Petaluma, Calif. native also benefitted from a victory in the discus throw with a distance of 152-10.00 on his first attempt.

Cooks scored a career-high in the heptathlon with her 5,671 points. She finished first in three events and runner-up in three others. She had an 11th-place effort in the final event of the meet, the 800 meters.

Cooks started day two with a win in the long jump as she improved her career-best by nearly three inches to finish at 20-00.75. She then placed second in the javelin with a distance of 132-08.75.

Usgaard chased Cooks with a pair of third-place efforts in the long jump (19-05.25) and javelin (115-10.75), while finishing the meet in sixth in the 800-meters.

The main portion of the championship meet begins next Friday at Cal State Fullerton. The field events start at 10:30 a.m. with the women’s hammer, while the first track event takes place at 3:00 p.m. with the men’s steeplechase.